Nokia tablet rumoured by patent

Nokia has filed a patent with the US Patent and Trade Organisation outlining a keyboard and cover device for a tablet.

Looking very similar to the Microsoft Surface, Nokia’s tablet could incorporate a keyboard cover that also functions as a stand and can hold a stylus.

The “apparatus cover with keyboard” is said to be “pivotally connected” to a “display”, better known as a tablet. Including a kickstand feature and a stylus holder, the cover could also be folded in a number of ways for various uses and viewing angles.

The patent application was actually filed in October 2011, so the pictured tablet wouldn’t have been conceived as a Windows RT slate.

According to a variety of Nokia executives, the Finnish company has been exploring ways of getting into the tablet market. Nokia has been working on a Windows 8 tablet for some time in fact, but its state of development is still unknown.

In February, an image of a Nokia Lumia tablet appeared on screen at a Nokia Lumia 620 event in Pakistan. The tablet popped up briefly in between the entry-level handset and a desktop running Windows 8.

The tablet sported the same design features as the Nokia Lumia 620 including the bright yellow finish and thin bezel. In comparison to the 3.8-inch Nokia Lumia 620, the tablet could wield a screen size of somewhere between the 7.9-inch iPad mini and 10-inch Google Nexus 10.

Nokia’s design chief Marko Ahtisaari has said he was spending a third of time developing tablets in an interview, but Nokia has not commented further on its plan to create a Windows 8 or Windows RT tablet.

Some expected Nokia to launch a Nokia Lumia tablet at Mobile World Congress, the Barcelona-based mobile conference, back in February, but no such device ever appeared. Via:Engadget